In Selling and Stealing Secrets
by f-romanoff-13
Summary: A SHIELD mission doesn't go to plan; Clint and Natasha are compromised. Fury orders the other Avengers to stay out of it, but since when did Tony Stark listen to Nick Fury? Reviews are always appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

Clint was getting worried; Natasha was over 20 minutes late to the rendezvous point and hadn't made contact since he'd lost sight of her yesterday.

This should have been a simple mission, far below that normally assigned to people with their skill level; in fact, they'd only been given the briefing 10 minutes before boarding the quinjet! Sanders and Joyce, two newbie agents had originally been assigned to it but had to pull out last minute when Joyce broke his wrist in training. Or, more precisely; Natasha 'accidentally' broke his wrist in training when he complimented her ass, and Fury sent Natasha and Clint in their place as punishment.

Natasha was to meet their target; Abdul, in a crowded market area posing as a rouge KGB agent. She was to sell him information about security protocols employed throughout Russia (this information was of course completely fabricated by SHIELD). While in close proximity she was to plant a tracking devise on him – simple.

However when they'd reached the meeting point Abdul wasn't there; a man claiming to work for Abdul asked Natasha to accompany him to a more private location for the meet to take place. She'd agreed knowing Clint was watching her from a balcony; however a fight had broken out, local police called, and in the commotion Clint had lost sight of his partner.

Clint was pacing back and forth outside a run down gas station, trying to figure out how much longer to give Nat before calling in a Code Renegade to SHIELD HQ when a dark car with blacked out windows came screeching down the dirt road and stopped right beside him.

He opened the door to climb in: "Jeez Nat; you're cutting it a bit..."

He froze mid sentence when he saw it was not Natasha sat in the driver's seat. Instead the small man who'd met Natasha at the market yesterday, Esposito, sat smirking at him.

A muffled sound from the back of the car drew Clint's gaze. Natasha was sat behind Esposito; her hands were handcuffed together, ankles bound, and she was gagged. Abdul was holding a knife dangerously close to her throat.

She shook her head; a warning for Clint to run. But Abdul pressed the knife against her skin; drawing blood.

"Get in" he sneered; gesturing to the empty seat besides Esposito.

Clint glanced back to Natasha, her eyes burning with a warning, a plea not to listen to him, but he couldn't leave her alone, not again, so he climbed in.


	2. Chapter 2

Clint sat uneasily with his back to the door; facing Esposito.

Allowing himself a moment to take in Natasha's condition before he worked on a plan.  
She was obviously beaten; covered in large painful bruises and cuts, she also had small burns all over her, as if she'd been tasered or electrocuted. The way she was sat; leaning over slightly towards Abdul, despite the knife, told him she had some broken ribs too.  
Clint fast reached the conclusion of 'torture'; they wanted information from Nat, information they clearly didn't get from her, so now they were going to try and get it from him.  
They'd change tact, now they had two of them. They'd hurt her, but demand the information from Clint. He could feel the rage building up inside of him; the one true way to compromise Clint was through Natasha, he cared more about her life than he did his own. He couldn't let them hurt her again; he withdrew his gaze from his partner while he looked around the car; desperate to find a way of escape.

"So, Agent Barton..." Abdul droned from behind him, a glint in his eye as he once again pressed the knife to Natasha's neck. "It is clear we want some information, we hope you will be more cooperative than Agent Romanoff here..."

He paused, letting his words sink in. Natasha had gone to the meet under the alias Kristina Dezhnyov; if Abdul knew their names then they'd been compromised.

"How..."

"It's not of importance how I know your true identities"

"It's kind of important to me"

He glanced back to Natasha; one look into her eyes told him she hadn't got an answer either.

"Now Agent Barton, please do not get side tracked; you have two options. You either tell us the information we require of you, or we will slowly and painfully kill Agent Romanoff while you watch. Then perhaps they will send another SHIELD agent after me and we can start again..."

So this was SHIELD related, not Avenger related; that's one question answered.

"So, Agent Barton; I want all the passcodes and overrides to SHIELDs database and details of their firewalls and security protocols, and I want them now."

"I don't have..."

"Do not lie to me Agent Barton!" Abdul snarled, swiping his blade down Natasha's cheek leaving a deep laceration from her temple to her chin. "I know you and Agent Romanoff have security clearance 9!"

Clint was lost for words for a minute, _how did he know that?_

Clint's dumbfounded expression did not escape Abdul's attention. "Now do not lie to me again; tell me what I need to know!"


	3. Chapter 3

There was very little Clint could do to stall. Abdul was angry, really angry; he'd tried relentlessly to get the information out of Natasha for over 24 hours and failed, and he was certainly not a man who liked to fail.  
Clint had to make a decision; he certainly couldn't give him the codes; that would put millions of lives at risk, he couldn't have that on his conscience, not again... Not to mention that it still didn't guarantee his and Natasha's safety. He could lie, and hope that'd buy some time, or he could attempt to escape...

"Why do you keep me waiting Agent Barton?"

Though he spoke to Clint his eyes were fixed on Natasha, they burnt with rage but Abdul had an odd sense of fascination with her, a twisted intrigue somewhere between awe and lust; in fact, he'd not taken his eyes off her in all the time Clint had been in the car.

The way he stared at her filled Clint with anger; and he made a decision.

Clint immediately lashed out; hitting Esposito in the face with his elbow and breaking his nose. The shock caused Esposito to momentarily lose control of the car; he veered to the right hitting the sidewalk and burst one of the tires. Clint quickly grabbed for Esposito's gun, a well timed kick into his back from Natasha helped Clint pry it from his grip. Two bullets were fired in the scuffle; one shattering the front windscreen and the other narrowly missing Clint's face. Now in control of the weapon, after breaking Esposito's wrist; Clint turned and shot Abdul, he'd been tightening his grip on Natasha during the commotion, trying to use her as a shield if needed, as leverage against Clint, but all it did was fuel his rage, and he was dead within seconds. Natasha didn't even flinch as the shot was fired; obviously able to read her partner and knew what he was going to attempt before Clint himself did.

Esposito swerved left and right dramatically down the road, trying to distract Clint, or cause him to drop the gun. Neither had worked however, and the drastic veering back and forth had resulted in the loss of another tire. The vehicle was now in disarray and virtually impossible to control; it hasn't been in the best of shape to begin with.

Esposito rammed the driver's door open and jumped out of the car, just as it hit the railing and plunged 20 foot into the lake below.

The missing windscreen and open door meant the car rapidly sank as water filled the vehicle and dragged it down.  
Clint kicked his door open ready to escape, and turned to face Natasha. He was happy that his escape plan had sort of worked, but slightly annoyed they'd have to swim.

Suddenly his composure fell away as panic set in. Natasha's wrists were not only handcuffed together, but the chain was looped through the handle on the door, without the key to unlock them she'd be dragged down with the car...


	4. Chapter 4

The agents in the New York SHIELD office had all been distracted from their work when Tony Stark had stormed in, demanding to see director Fury. Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner followed him down the hallway to his office, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Where are they?"

"Good afternoon Mister Stark"

"Don't start that with me. Where are they?"

"They're on a mission Mister Stark"

"I'm only going to ask once more; **where**?"

"This is SHIELD business Stark, and is of no concern of you"

"They're part of my team too Fury. They failed to make the evac point and have been radio silent for the past few hours. Clint was concerned about Nat before that so tell me where they are"

"How on earth do you know so many details of an undercover operation?"

"You're stalling me again Fury!"

Behind Tony and Fury's argument, a hand appeared on Bruce's shoulder, a calming influence which made him realise how much he'd been shaking with rage, he turned to nod at Steve before leaving the office.

"Director, it took all my persuasive skills to get Tony to come down here not wearing his suit. Please give us some answers before he runs back to the tower to get it"

"Forget it Steve, the director obviously doesn't care. I'll hack the servers, get a location and then we'll go bring our team members back. Goodbye Fury"

And with that Tony stormed out of the office; Fury shouting behind him "Stark! Under no circumstances are you to interfere with this mission!"

* * *

Hill arrived in Fury's office a minute later; "what was that all about sir?"

"Stark and his team, they're concerned about Barton and Romanoff"

"Haven't we already sent a team in after them sir?"

"No not yet, it didn't seem necessary. If they're in trouble they''ll handle it. They always do"

"Sir, Abdul is a mass murderer with ties to several terrorist cells. If our agents haven't made contact then they could be in serious danger"

Fury rubbed his temples. "Fine, mobilize a team, but if this turns out to be nothing then its on your head Hill"

"Right sir" she turned to leave, texting Coulson the go-ahead on her way.


	5. Chapter 5

Clint gasped for breath as he broke the surface, pausing for just a moment to savour the air before diving back down. He swam further and further down; the lake was much deeper than he'd ever have thought, he could feel the pressure building in his ears and his eyes strained as the light faded. He reached Natasha and breathed most of the air into her mouth before turning his attention back to Abdul. His lifeless body lay next to Natasha, Clint was desperately searching his pockets for a key to the handcuffs, but so far, he'd found nothing.

He swam back up to the surface; each time he submerged he cut it finer and finer, feeling increasingly lightheaded and desperate for air when he re-emerged from the water. He knew Natasha could hold her breath for a long time, they'd had many competitions in SHIELDs pool during training, but right now she'd been under for almost ten minutes; breathing only the air Clint had managed to pass to her as he tried to free her.

Natasha was really starting to feel the effect of oxygen deprivation. Her lungs burnt and her head swam. She couldn't focus or think straight. When they'd first gone off the bridge she'd fought desperately against the handcuffs; Clint had tried to help too, but all she'd managed to do was break her wrist. They were on too tight, and she wasn't sure where the keys were; for all she knew Esposito was sat on the bridge with them, and if that were the case, it was too late for her.  
Clint reappeared in front of her, taking her chin in his hands and forcing more air into her lungs. He lingered a little longer this time, his lips pressed to hers, before he swam back to the surface.

Clint's kiss had reignited a spark in Natasha, she couldn't give up. She wasn't ready to leave him. Watching him swim back up to the surface made her determined to follow him. Clint had untied her feet and she used them to manoeuvre Abdul's knife into a position where she could grab it. She slammed the knife repeatedly into the handle on the door which the handcuffs were looped through. Clint rejoined her one more time, delivering another bout of oxygen and taking the knife from her, he swung the weapon with greater force that Natasha could manage with her limited range of motion. As well as using the knife a few well placed kicks from Clint and the handle came loose and Clint slipped the chain of the cuffs free. He grabbed her hand and dragged her upwards, they swam together with every ounce of strength they had left.

After what seemed like a lifetime they reached the surface and Natasha could take her first proper breath in almost 25 minutes. She gasped desperately for breath as she tread water beside Clint; hands still bound together made swimming more difficult than normal. Suddenly a familiar sound echoed overhead. They both looked up to see Tony hovering in his Iron Man outfit above them;

"Thought you could use a hand" he smiled at them as his faceplate flipped open.

"Where were you 20 minutes ago?" Clint stuttered

"Fury was being an ass"

"What's new there?" Natasha stammered breathlessly

"How about we have this conversation back on dry land eh?"

"Sounds like a plan to me" Clint smiled, gladly accepting the helping hand offered by Tony as he saw a quinjet flying towards them; Coulson sat in the pilot seat with Steve sat beside him.


End file.
